Chapter 8. The Debian package management tools

This is the main package management program. dpkg can be invoked with many options. Some common uses are:

APT is the Advanced Package Tool, an advanced interface to the Debian packaging system which provides the apt-get program. It provides commandline tools for searching and managing packages, and for querying information about them, as well as low-level access to all features of the libapt-pkg library. For more information, see the User's Guide in /usr/share/doc/apt-doc/guide.html/index.html (you will have to install the apt-doc package).

Starting with Debian Jessie, some frequently used apt-get and apt-cache commands have an equivalent via the new apt binary. This means some popular commands like apt-get update, apt-get install, apt-get remove, apt-cache search, or apt-cache show now can also be called simply via apt, say apt update, apt install, apt remove, apt search, or apt show. The following is an overview of the old and new commands:

 apt-get update             ->  apt update
 apt-get upgrade            ->  apt upgrade
 apt-get dist-upgrade       ->  apt full-upgrade
 apt-get install package    ->  apt install package
 apt-get remove package     ->  apt remove package
 apt-get autoremove         ->  apt autoremove
 apt-cache search string    ->  apt search string
 apt-cache policy package   ->  apt list -a package
 apt-cache show package     ->  apt show package
 apt-cache showpkg package  ->  apt show -a package

The apt tool merges functionality of apt-get and apt-cache and by default has a fancier colored output format, making it more pleasant for humans. For usage in scripts or advanced use cases, apt-get is still preferable or needed.

apt-get provides a simple way to retrieve and install packages from multiple sources using the command line. Unlike dpkg, apt-get does not understand .deb files, it works with the packages proper name and can only install .deb archives from a source specified in /etc/apt/sources.list. apt-get will call dpkg directly after downloading the .deb archives^[5] from the configured sources.

Some common ways to use apt-get are:

Note that you must be logged in as root to perform any commands that modify packages.

Note that apt-get now also installs recommended packages as default, and thanks to its robustness it's the preferred program for package management from console to perform system installation and major system upgrades.

The apt tool suite also includes the apt-cache tool to query the package lists. You can use it to find packages providing specific functionality through simple text or regular expression queries and through queries of dependencies in the package management system. Some common ways to use apt-cache are:

For more information, install the apt package and read apt(8), apt-get(8), sources.list(5) and install the apt-doc package and read /usr/share/doc/apt-doc/guide.html/index.html.

aptitude is a package manager for Debian GNU/Linux systems that provides a frontend to the apt package management infrastructure. aptitude is a text-based interface using the curses library. Actions may be performed from a visual interface or from the command-line.

aptitude can be used to perform management tasks in a fast and easy way. It allows the user to view the list of packages and to perform package management tasks such as installing, upgrading, and removing packages.

aptitude provides the functionality of apt-get, as well as many additional features:

You can use aptitude through a visual interface (simply run aptitude) or directly from the command line. The command line syntax used is very similar to the one used in apt-get. For example, to install the foo package, you can run aptitude install foo.

Note that aptitude is the preferred program for daily package management from the console.

For more information, read the manual page aptitude(8) and install the aptitude-doc package.

synaptic is a graphical package manager. It enables you to install, upgrade and remove software packages in a user friendly way. Along with most of the features offered by aptitude, it also has a feature for editing the list of used repositories, and supports browsing all available documentation related to a package. See the Synaptic Website for more information.

When you want to perform a specific task it might be difficult to find the appropiate suite of packages that fill your need. The Debian developers have defined tasks, a task is a collection of several individual Debian packages all related to a specific activity. Tasks can be installed through the tasksel program or through aptitude.

Typically, the Debian installer will automatically install the task associated with a standard system and a desktop environment. The specific desktop environment installed will depend on the CD/DVD media used, most commonly it will be the GNOME desktop (gnome-desktop task). Also, depending on your selections throughout the installation process, tasks might be automatically installed in your system. For example, if you selected a language other than English, the task associated with it will be installed automatically too.